The fact that weather is out of our control does not disguise our sheer disappointment when it ruins a popular event and the latest victim is the Matamata Racing Club’s Breeders’ Stakes Day, last Saturday.
Last spring, a number of New Zealand race meetings were either abandoned or postponed due to weather. Last month Matamata pushed their January 21 meeting back two days due to rains which caused a landslide and subsequent deaths at Mt Maunganui. So much for stable summer weather.
New Zealand’s Waikato region took another hit late last week as owners, trainers and raceday patrons were faced with a sodden Heavy 9 track for Matamata’s feature summer meeting. Hindsight is 20/20 but on reflection, pushing the meeting back by two or three days might have been preferable. The racing deserved it.
Perhaps the raceday committee considered the idea however it was the trainers who spoke clearly, scratching 31 potential runners over the nine-race card. Three fields were finalised at just six runners including the day’s feature, the Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) while the Group 3 Matamata Slipper (1200m) saw just four starters compete. Punters shy clear of small fields and ever-necessary betting turnover suffers accordingly.
An out-of-season deep track resulted in several very slow times. The 1200-metre Slipper was run in 1:16.21. The 1200-metre Breeders’ Stakes was run in 1:14.54. The best time of the day was in the Lisa Chittick Champagne Stakes (Listed, 1400m), run in a surprisingly good 1:27.38. Over a middle-distance was the Kaimai Classic (Listed, 2000m) and all four races were won from the front. Justin Case (Banquo), Lara Antipova (Russian Revolution) and My Lips Are Sealed (Ace High) led the last 1000 metres, while Diamond Jak (Jakkalberry) led with a lap to run. Each hugged tight to the running rail rounding into the home straight from where they skipped clear to win comfortably. The old adage of “out in front and out of trouble” paid off in spades.
How good?
Lara Antipova was far too good in the Breeders’ Stakes which lost its gloss when strong competitor Liguria (Snitzel) was a late scratching. Beginning fairly, Lara Antipova took command after 200m and never really gave her opponents much hope. Opie Bosson gave her a shake soon after straightening then and a half slap down her off shoulder at the 150m but this was too easy and the filly remains unbeaten in three starts.
Her debut at Te Aroha early December was a walkover, away by eight lengths at the line and later that month, at Trentham for the Wakefield Challenge Stakes (Gr 2, 1100m), she showed her opponents a clean pair of heels when racing way by four and half lengths in a sharp 1:03.36, the last 600m in 33.32.
Offered at the 2025 Gold Coast Magic Millions Yearling Sale, Lara Antipova was purchased by David Ellis and Fortuna racing for AU$100,000 which now looks like an inspired purchase. The filly is raced by a syndicate put together by John Galvin and his Fortuna brand who had so much success with Ellis’s purchase of the great Melody Belle (Commands).
Lara Antipova’s earnings of $240,360 might only be a deposit on a what promises to be a top class career which is very likely to include the Sistema Stakes (Gr 1, 1200) at Ellerslie, the same day as the NZB Kiwi (Listed, 1500m), scheduled for March 7. You won’t be able to miss her giant white blaze.
Success breeds success and Ellis has displayed a keen liking for champion sire Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) so identifying a runner by Snitzel’s son Russian Revolution is probably no real surprise. Lara Antipova is one of four winners from Artistic Lass (Myboycharlie) whose five win record included two in Sydney, just missing black-type when finishing fourth in the Listed Fernhill Handicap (1600m). She remained sound throughout her career.
Artistic Lass ranks as a half-sister to Sistine Angel (Testa Rossa) whose only wins were the Edward Manifold Stakes (Gr 2, 1600m) and a Caulfield Group 3 plus a Group 1 second in the Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m). Another half-sister is Sistine Demon (Excites), a Group 3 and Listed winner in Melbourne, two of her eight wins.
Deceptive
As previously mentioned, the other feature race for the two-year-olds, the Matamata Slipper, drew four runners after scratchings. What can be taken from this race will remain in doubt but it might not be wise to write off the winner’s performance because of the small field. Statistics will show that Waikato Stud’s value sire, Banquo (Written Tycoon) is off and running with his first stakes winner.
Justin Case ran them off their feet and waltzed clear by nearly six lengths to take his record to two wins in three starts. A trial win in late October was followed by a race debut second at Pukekohe in which he raced three wide the trip. At the delayed Matamata meeting on January 23 he was an easy winner on a Heavy 8 surface.
The closest Justin Case came to being sold at auction was in 2025 but he was withdrawn from the NZB Ready To Run Sale. He is the fifth winner from his stakes-winning dam Do Ra Mi (Savabeel) which includes stakes-placed Hanger (O’Reilly), a five-times winner who was third in the Matamata Slipper when it was a Listed race. Do Ra Mi’s premier performance was in Flemington’s Kewney Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m). Do Ra Mi’s half-sister Marju Snip (Marju) landed Adelaide’s Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) and five other races while their half-brother Unique Jewellery (O’Reilly) won at Listed level in Hong Kong.
Their dam, Aulide (Snippets), is a half-sister to the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Nadeem (Redoute’s Choice) who stood at Little Avondale Stud. His standing there was no accident as he represents a family that has its roots with the Te Parae Stud-Little Avondale Stud empire, tracing directly to the first mare that Sam Williams’ grandmother Nancy bred and sold from. Haggada holds a special place in the Williams’ family history because allowing Haggada to relocate from Marlborough to the Wairarapa after Alister Williams proposed marriage to Nancy was a condition of the marriage. Alister was not at all interested in Nancy’s horses but she insisted: “No horses, no Nancy.”
Aulide’s and Nadeem’s dam Candide (Sound Reason) achieved a notable classic double, the New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) and the New Zealand 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m). Candide’s sister, Sound Lover not only scored at Group 3 level herself, she produced four stakes winners and Savamour (Savabeel), dam of Sydney Group 3 winner Belluci Babe (Per Incanto) and grandam of Group 2 winner Evaporate (Per Incanto). Little Avondale’s loyalty to Nancy Williams’s legacy has paid off royally.
Far and wide
Cambridge Stud’s recent successes via their sires and at the Karaka Yearling Sale has spread to the deep south in the form of Hello Hayley (Hello Youmzain) and her solid win in the Southland Guineas (Listed, 1400m), the stallion’s second winner on Saturday’s Ascot Park programme.
When catching up with Cambridge Stud’s CEO Henry Plumptre at Karaka, Kiwi Chronicles made mention of the recent racetrack success of resident sire Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) to which Henry obviously agreed. However, Henry also pointed out that while Sword Of State (Snitzel) had made a highly promising start to his unfolding career, that Hello Youmzain (Kodiac) was also chiming in strongly to the tune of more than 100 individual winners across both hemispheres.
That number currently stands at 109 (Taffeta’s Saturday’s) and it might pay to remember that Hello Youmzain’s first northern hemisphere crop has just turned four, or effectively just two crops. In the southern hemisphere his oldest are three-year-olds. In terms of individual stakes winners, his tally totals five in the north while Hello Hayley is his third in the south.
Among his stakes-placed performers are six in Europe and four here in New Zealand two of which, Bulgari and Drops Of God, filled second and third in the Cambridge Stud sponsored Almanzor Trophy (Gr 3, 1200m) on Karaka Millions night a few weeks back.
Hello Hayley’s win was a splendid effort as she was last at the 800m and still last at the 600m. Apprentice Donovan Cooper waited and while most of the field went wide he saved precious ground rounding into the shortish Ascot Park straight. At the 200m he had to move out a lane for a run but then switched back to the inner, diving through to challenge. The filly levelled up inside the 100m and was too good by a convincing length.
Hello Hayley had one start from Lance Noble’s stable as a juvenile but her five subsequent starts this season have been with Sophie Price of Winton. At start two from her new lodgings Hello Hayley broke through at Ascot Park in mid December and was tried at stakes level in the NZB Air Freight Stakes (Listed, 1400m) on Boxing Day at Wingatui for an encouraging sixth.
Hello Hayley is the fourth winner from Hayley Grace (Thorn Park), herself a half-sister to Waikato Gold Cup (Gr 2, 2400m) winner Bak Da Chief (Chief Bearhart), the latter the dam of the brilliant Te Akau Shark (Rip Van Winkle). Another half-sister is Bak Da Princess (Danske) whose daughter Ponderosa Miss (High Chaparral) scored Ellerslie’s Easter Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m).
